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Modi hints at GST relief for small medium sized firms Micro, small and medium enterprises, crucial to Modi’s plans to create a million jobs a month, have been hurt by the massive tax overhaul that added layers of extra bureaucracy for firms and hit exports.

Thousands of Indian small firms and traders hurting from higher cost of doing business under a new multi-rate tax regime might receive some relief next week.Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that if there is consensus at the next Goods and Services Tax (GST) council meeting on November 9 and 10 then necessary measures could be taken to help small and medium-sized businesses and traders

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), crucial to Modi’s plans to create a million jobs a month and many of whose promoters are traditional voters of his Bharatiya Janata Party, have been hurt by the massive tax overhaul that added layers of extra bureaucracy for firms and hit exports.India has about 56 million small and medium-sized f…

GST on common use goods may be cut The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council may consider lowering tax rates on a host of goods such as hand made furniture, plastic products and daily use items like shampoo, and simplify return filing rules in its meeting this week.The Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, is scheduled to meet on Friday to consider lowering of the 28 per cent GST rate on certain common use items, government officials said. In further relief to small and medium enterprises, the panel is likely to rationalise tax rate in sectors where the total incidence of taxation has gone up because the goods were earlier either exempt from excise or was attracted lower value added tax rates in the previous indirect tax regime. The Council has been meeting every month since the GST regime, which amalgamated overadozen central and state taxes, was introduced on July 1. The meetings have resulted in an array of changes to ease compliance burden on businesses as well as provided…

Profiteering check now picking up Kerala panel seeks action against 335 merchants The antiprofiteering mechanism under the goods and services tax (GST) has picked up, with Kerala proposing action against 335 traders for not passing on to consumers a reduction in price under the new set of levies.The screening committee of the state has written to the standing committee at the Centre, providing a list of these merchants and evidence, demanding action. Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar, among others, say they´ve started with awareness campaigns, price information collection and investigation.“We collected information and found some were collecting GST while not being registered.Some others were additionally collecting value added tax (VAT) from consumers. Some were charging GST above the MRP (printed Maximum Retail Price).We have demanded strict action against these entities, to discourage others from these malpractices,” said a Kerala official, on condition of anonymity.Kerala´s screening commi…

Shell companies deposited, withdrew Rs 17,000 crore after demonetisation As the government nears completion ofayear after demonetisation, the data shows suspected ´shell´ companies deposited and withdrew Rs 17,000 crore in the days after the note ban.The data, issued by the government, is from 56 banks for 35,000 companies, which had around 58,000 bank accounts. One company had a negative balance before demonetisation but deposited and withdrew Rs2,484 crore after November 8, 2016, the government said.These companies´ bank accounts have been frozen.And, state governments told to restrict sales and transfers of real estate assets owned by these entities. The statement issued by the Centre gives a summary of recent decisions to check the suspected money laundering via such companies —such keeping a check on ´dummy´ directors by connecting the director identification number with Aadhaar, the citizen identification number, and the permanent account number.Existing directors and new ones wil…

GST Overhaul on Cards to Make it Less Taxing Changes may be with regard to input credit, place of supply and valuation provisions The goods and services tax could be in for a revamp that's more comprehensive than the tweaks that have been made thus far to iron out kinks to make compliance less on erous. The GST Council has set up a new advisory group that includes industry representatives to look into such changes. Experts said these may apply to input credit apart from place of supply and valuation provisions. The group will give its report to the law committee of the council by November 30. This will be reviewed by the committee and forwarded to the council for speedy action. “A group has been set up to give feedback about the issues faced by industry with regard to laws, rules and procedures,“ said a government official. This is in addition to changes proposed to the composition scheme to bring relief to small businesses and traders that could be taken up by the GST Council at its…

Food majors deliver Rs 68000 crore MoUs World Food India, spread across India Gate and Vigyan Bhawan, turning Lutyens´ Delhi into a traffic nightmare, started Friday morning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi inviting investors to tap the “unlimited opportunities´´ in India´s food sector.Soon after, top executives of global food and retail majors from PepsiCo to CocaCola and Amazon to Metro, along with domestic biggies such as ITC and Patanjali, lined up to ink investment MoUs, totalling Rs 68,000 crore over multiple years. The MoUs, 13 of them, formalised the investments promised earlier by these companies.Others such as Nestle offered to help the government in food safety, while making a reference to the Maggi ban debacle in India two years ago.In investments, PepsiCo led the pack withacommitment worth Rs 13,340 crore, followed by rival CocaCola (Rs 11,000 crore).PepsiCo had earlier announced its plan to invest Rs 35,000 crore in India and the latest commitment is part of the total pie…

Five judge Bench to deal with pleas on depositing scrapped notes A five judge Constitution Bench, which would decide the validity of the Centre´s November 8, 2016, decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, would also deal with the pleas seeking to deposit the demonetised currency, the Supreme Court said on Friday.

ABench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra disposed of as many as 14 petitions, seeking its nod to deposit scrapped currency notes on the ground that they could not be deposited during the window period provided by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) due to compelling reasons.

It asked the petitioners to file interlocutory pleas in the pending petition to be dealt with by the Constitution Bench.“We think it appropriate that the writ petitioners shall file interlocutory pleas in the pending writ petition before the Constitution Bench,” the Bench, also comprising AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said.

The top court said it has not opined on the merits of the validity of the ordinance…